Analysis on the AoI in Blockchain-based IoT Networks with Different Sensing Mechanisms

Internet of Things (IoT) solutions have applications in various spheres of human life. There is a large number of IoT devices connected to the Internet and with a tendency to increase. Blockchain technology allows solving multiple security and centralization problems in these overcrowded networks. Fork occurrence affects the performance of many consensus mechanisms used in Blockchain, so it is important to analyze their performance considering different metrics and traffic patterns. This paper evaluates the performance of a blockchain-based IoT network in terms of the Age of Information (AoI) considering different traffic patterns and forking phenomena. Simulation results show that the AoI remains constant until the average time a batch stays in the queue is less than the average mining time and the decrease stops when the miners reach their maximum mining capacity. The simulation results allow to verify the agreement with the analytical model and to study the influence of the blockchain configuration parameters in the AoI, for different sensing mechanisms.